Confabulat:Hahaha. May as well call customer service for the Moon.United Healthcare

ftfy

I'm pretty sure their system is programmed to drop every 3rd call. I love how their hold music sounds like you're losing cell phone signal and it has random 5 second pauses so you think you're disconnected. Yet the automated voice sounds clear as a bell.

When new commuter rail service started a Massachusetts family discovered the railroad crossing that provided access to their house was not a legal crossing. The state put up a barrier and they became legally landlocked. Unlike the Florida woman (probably in the best physical shape of her life now) they could drive across neighbors' property to escape.

FWIW: Other articles say the family's been there 60 years and didn't have a problem before. I can't really tell from aerial photos where this is; looks like there's a goodly number of homes on both sides of the tracks, *maybe*, but with road access both ways.

Bathia_Mapes:Her house has been there for more than 30 years. I wonder if the tracks were there when her parents bought the house.

Most likely they were. Don't know if you've noticed, but rail travel hasn't exactly been a booming industry since the interstates started getting built.

stucka:I think at some point you could declare it abandoned property. One car would be a lot of scrap steel. Sure, it'd take a while to carve up, but the emotional satisfaction would be good, too.

Not so much. I seriously doubt that she owns the track, or the easements on either side of it. Ever bump over a really shiatty railroad crossing on a street and wonder why the city/state doesn't fix it? Probably because they don't actually own the property.

As for the train being idle for so long, it means that the stimulus is working well.....goods and services are being produced, and need movement! Or, there's just not enough space anymore in remote areas where they've stowed the other idle trains.

I was on the fence about this one, until i watched the video. She doesn't have a driveway, he has a quarter mile of woods and marsh between her and the nearest road, and tracks happen to run through said woods/marsh. The distance between her house and the road is greater than the "detour" she'd have to take to just walk around the parked freight cars.

She also complains that her house is falling apart because the train is blocking repair crews in one breath, then admits that the train has been there for about a month in the next. Houses don't go from solid to falling apart in one month.

Holy geez, I hate to see anyone crawling under trains - stationary or not. The could only end badly

Can't say that I have crawled under a train, but I have climbed over many.......some that have been moving (at a snails pace). Crawling under one that has the ability to move just sounds like a really bad idea.

hurdboy:Bathia_Mapes: Her house has been there for more than 30 years. I wonder if the tracks were there when her parents bought the house.

Most likely they were. Don't know if you've noticed, but rail travel hasn't exactly been a booming industry since the interstates started getting built.

Rail travel may not be major anymore,freight hauling still is. Trains haul all kinds of stuff,chemicals,automobiles,and container traffic is major(all the crap you buy at wal-mart has probably been on at least one container train). There are still quite a few freight cars and locomotives in storage due to the recession. I've seen a few around here,we have empty tank cars parked outside of the town I live in on a dead end shortline,and the nearby railroad museum has 300 coal hoppers in storage. Last year they had autoracks,but those are gone.

i think this is it, look how you have to either cross the tracks or walk up to the neighbors before there is a road

The lot is west of the tracks and south of the acess road, It looks like they just need to finish the acess road to the north.

Link (new window)

this woman is a victim of lazy ass overindulgent self-rightous railroad management.

This should be investigated by the railroad comission and compensation should be awarded to the victim.

CSX has had for at the very least, TWO MONTHS to 'finish' an access road. Even while knowing about the problem they have delayed in remedying such an egregious lack of adherance to OSHA compliance. Not to mention a wanten disregard for a vulnerable tax paying member of society.

I am sure CSX transportation has the resources (and an easy way to transport them)to complete the access road in about 1/2 of a day's time, and then make it the local saloon.

hurdboy:Bathia_Mapes: Her house has been there for more than 30 years. I wonder if the tracks were there when her parents bought the house.

Most likely they were. Don't know if you've noticed, but rail travel hasn't exactly been a booming industry since the interstates started getting built.

stucka: I think at some point you could declare it abandoned property. One car would be a lot of scrap steel. Sure, it'd take a while to carve up, but the emotional satisfaction would be good, too.

Not so much. I seriously doubt that she owns the track, or the easements on either side of it. Ever bump over a really shiatty railroad crossing on a street and wonder why the city/state doesn't fix it? Probably because they don't actually own the property.

As for the train being idle for so long, it means that the stimulus is working well.....goods and services are being produced, and need movement! Or, there's just not enough space anymore in remote areas where they've stowed the other idle trains.

CSX must have been getting a kick out denying this woman access to Emergency Medical Services and public outreach programs. Not to mention the denying her the right to participate in the United States census.

jw1987:Rail travel may not be major anymore,freight hauling still is. Trains haul all kinds of stuff,chemicals,automobiles,and container traffic is major(all the crap you buy at wal-mart has probably been on at least one container train). There are still quite a few freight cars and locomotives in storage due to the recession. I've seen a few around here,we have empty tank cars parked outside of the town I live in on a dead end shortline,and the nearby railroad museum has 300 coal hoppers in storage. Last year they had autoracks,but those are gone.

Oh, I know freight rail is big. But there hasn't been much line construction at all since the end of WWII. They've done improvements on existing lines to support heavier loads, maybe a bit for higher-speed (up to ~100kph), but that's about it.

I live in an area that's a terminus for a lot of rail traffic (to the port here); in the fifteen years I've been here, I've only seen one new stretch of rail built, and that was just a spur to serve a new Maersk terminal. Older NS tracks that have hardly any use are getting bought up for local mass-transit projects. Up until recently, there were proposals to buy a CSX line and replace it with an Interstate.

It also speaks to why all these high speed passenger rail proposals out of DC cost so much money. While there may be track capacity, hardly any of those tracks are in sufficient shape to support high-speed traffic. "Bu-bu-but they have high-speed trains in Europe!!!!1!" Yes, and their trains don't go clickity-clack, either. That's because the tracks are welded together, instead of bolted like ours are. Oh, and they use concrete ties instead of creosote wood.....